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Someone from NC explain a little more about "Free Bees" I think you are talking about tobacco money. Here in KY there was or maybe still is a program , if you call it that , to relieve from the loss of tobacco. After reading about half way through it I decided I would pay for it myself. The rules they had were so strict it was like dealing with the IRS.
Henry

Got my rejection yesterday. I did not expect to receive any hives ( 250 prs to be given away to 2770 applications) the odds are against you. There are strict rules also must attend approved classes, keep records and send them in, and after 2 years they are yours. The program targets new beekeepers, not farmers trying to change from tobacco based incomes to new alternate incomes.

Question: Who is eligible to apply to the program?
Answer: Any NC citizen is welcome to apply to the program. However, preference will be given to those who are not active beekeepers or those who have not previously kept bees.

my friend got his rejection letter the other day. I, as a new beekeeper applied and did received a phone call the other week from a guy from nc state. he asked me a few questions and said i should know something soon. looks good so far..

The NC Bee Program was a part of the Golden Leaf Foundation grant. The foundation was established to administer some of the state's share of tobacco settlement money from the lawsuits against "big tobacco." This "free-bee" program was supposedly devised to get former tobacco farmers interested in beekeeping as a viable cash crop. They were to have the first preference as possible recipients of 2 hives of Russian bees and some other bee-goodies. There were stipulations attached, such as the bees or equipment couldn't be sold for two years. You can read about it at the NCSBA website. They had 2773 applicants and 250 recipients.

Most of the applicants were folks who already had a few colonies and figured, "why not?", even though there was little chance of qualifying. They had to go to a "lottery" system, so they say, for final determination of bee placements. One guy in our bee club(a tobacco farmer) said he got his acceptance letter a couple of weeks ago, but didn't know when the bees would be available. I don't know exactly how they graded the applications, but the form had several categories from which to select, such as farmer, commercial beekeeper, hobbyist, hobbyist wanting to become a full-time commercial beekeeper etc.